The flagship of the Beiyang fleet was the Dingyuan 定远 was an armored warship commissioned by the Qing imperial government and built in Germany in 1881. She was an impressive ship with one catastrophic design flaw.
In this episode of Barbarians at the Gates, Edward Wong of the New York Times joins David and me to discuss Ed's new book, At the Edge of Empire. We discuss frontiers, what the Qing Dynasty means for China, and the different generational perspectives on China's recent past.